Pope defends his trip to Iraq during pandemic
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis said Monday that he weighed the risks of a high-profile trip to Iraq during the coronavirus pandemic, but said he decided to go ahead with it after much prayer and belief that God would look out for the Iraqis who might get exposed.
Francis described his decision-making process en route home amid concerns his four-day visit, which featured often maskless crowds in packed churches, singing — could result in the spread of infections in a country with a fragile health care system and a sustained surge in new cases.
Francis said the idea of a trip “cooks over time in my conscience,” and that the pandemic was the issue that weighed most heavily on him. Francis has experienced close-up the ravages of COVID-19 in Europe given Italy has had one of the worst outbreaks in the world, with the official death toll soon to hit 100,000.
“I prayed a lot about this. And in the end, I took the decision freely,” Francis, who was inoculated, said. “It came from inside. I said ‘He who makes me decide this way will look after the people.’ “I took the decision this way, but after prayer and knowing the risks.”
Francis on Monday wrapped up the first-ever papal trip to Iraq, aimed at bringing hope to the country’s marginalized Christian minority while boosting relations with the Shiite Muslim world.
Francis urged Iraqis to embrace diversity — from Najaf in the south, where he held a historic face-toface meeting with powerful Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to Nineveh to the north, where he met with Christian victims of the Islamic State group and heard testimonies of survival.